Don Braiden and Ray Graitson were driving with John Douglas from the Port Alberni Shelter Society’s event team, returning some equipment following the Alberni Canal Downwind Challenge, when Braiden thought he spied a wallet on the side of Plywood Drive.
It was about 9 a.m. on Sunday, and he wasn’t exactly sure it was a wallet, so he mentioned it in passing, and the trio continued on to their destination. On the way back to Canal Beach to finish their cleanup, Braiden saw the item again and asked Douglas to pull over.
The object was indeed a wallet, and it contained $1,200, credit cards and numerous pieces of identification.
“It looked like someone walked up the road and it fell out of his pocket,” Braiden said. “We looked and found ID and we called the RCMP because it was a lot of money.”
“They decided to phone the RCMP,” Douglas said. An RCMP member met the trio at Canal Beach and Braiden and Graitson turned over the wallet. Douglas, an employee with the Shelter Society, gave the officer his business card. The trio continued cleaning up the site for the next two hours, before returning to the shelter’s facility on Eighth Avenue.
When they arrived back at the shelter, a man was sitting in a car outside the building, and he had Douglas’ business card in his hand, from the RCMP officer.
“The guy tracked us down here at the hostel,” Braiden said. “He was pretty happy to get his money back.”
“It felt pretty good,” he added. “He was pretty happy, we were happy and he gave us a little bit of a reward.”
Braiden and Graitson are two members of a new program at the Port Alberni Shelter, the event team. “At first we set it up informally. When it became more structured we felt we should formalize it,” Douglas said.
Organizations can hire the event team for $15 per member per hour. The shelter society invoices the hiring organization, then pays out team members at $12 per hour. The extra $3 per hour goes toward the program in general, he explained. Team members fill out time sheets, they receive a cheque with their payment and are encouraged to set up bank accounts. Shelter society employees are available to help every step of the way, Douglas said.
“One of the benefits of the event team is clients of the shelter get to go out in the community and meet people organizing events, and people get to know more about the shelter society,” he said.
Team members help set up and take down equipment like fencing, tables and chairs, they will take care of garbage and recycling, and will move barricades as needed.
The event team has helped out at several different community events in Port Alberni over the past year: they’ve done the ACDC Challenge twice, Jane Austen Fest, the Five-Acre Shaker and Salmon Fest with the Kiwanis Club last year.
The team members are transitory, depending on who is staying at the shelter at any given time, Douglas said. Braiden and Graitson have worked for the team before, during Salmon Fest last year.
“It’s something to do, and they pay us a little bit,” says Braiden.
“I like to help out too,” Graitson said.
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